The Lens Turned Back: Incredible Vintage Photos of Photographers at Work

Photography has always been about freezing a moment in time, but these images turn the tables. Instead of looking at their work, we see the photographers themselves in action. These rare vintage shots reveal the people who dedicated their lives to capturing the world through a lens.

Every photographer had their own approach. Some carried massive cameras that demanded patience and precision. Others worked with lightweight gear, ready to move quickly for the perfect shot. The effort involved in taking a single photograph during this era was nothing like today’s point-and-shoot convenience. Every frame mattered because film was limited and expensive.

Look closely, and you’ll notice the determination in their stance. A tripod planted firmly on the ground meant hours of waiting for the right light. A handheld camera pressed to the eye meant chasing fleeting moments through crowded streets or open landscapes. Every adjustment of the focus ring was deliberate, every shutter click a decision made with care.

#1 That Linhof Technica and I saw lots of photographic action, from Royalty to the lower decks, ships, tanks and aircraft, fair weather or foul. Taken while working for the Directorate of Public Relations, Canberra, in 1976.

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#2 A great looking setup to achieve astrophotography, using a Kodak folding camera and some very long lenses, 1946.

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#3 Roberta Woolley, an English actress visiting Chicago, Illinois in March 1964, sports a 35mm Corfield Periflex camera and a Weston Master light meter.

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#4 Cine Camera.

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#5 This guy looks to be holding a No4 Folding Kodak Camera.

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#6 Cpl Adrian Lautenbach (Australian Army) and Sgt Al Meadows (Royal Australian Air Force), both Australian Defence Public Relations photographers, finish work at the RAAF base at Fairbairn, Canberra in March 1979.

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#7 Twins, LaVona and LaVelda Rowe were press photographers for the Chicago Sun-Times Newspaper. This obviously promotional image of the ladies with their Graflex cameras was taken in February 1961.

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#8 Our lucky photographer obtains details from Miss Connecticut, 19 year old Joyce Yeske, during the 1952 Miss America Pageant held in Atlantic City.

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#9 A press photographer trying to tease an image from a bear enclosure inmate of the Brookfield Zoo in 1945.

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#10 A British Royal Air Force Officer tours India with his folding camera.

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#11 French photographer on a beach with a very interested lad who one day might take on the role of a fashion photographer.

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#12 Apart from the unhealthy habit of smoking, the ash-fall from the pipe can’t be doing much good for the focus screen of the camera.

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#13 A farmer from Worthington, Missouri, USA, with his Kodak box camera.

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#14 A nice looking 1960’s girl shows off her nice looking Rollieflex.

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#15 Keen amateur photographer, surname of Little, from Victoria, Australia, takes his own portrait in something shiny.

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#16 A young photographer poses with his Deardorff 10×8 camera attached to a studio stand.

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#17 United States Army Air Corps photographer with a plate camera.

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#18 James Wong Howe working his cinemagraphic excellence on the film noir “Nora Prentiss” during February, 1946. Actress, Barbara London, and Director, Vincent Sherman, take an interest in James’ viewfinder composition.

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#19 United States Army Photographer lass using the sports finder frame of her Graflex camera.

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#20 Maxine Sullivan, age 10, with her father’s large Graflex camera, at the beach of 1950’s Melbourne, Australia.

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#21 Aircraftsman Ron Jeffs of the Royal Australian Air Force undergoes training with a 10×8 Ansco view camera at the School of Photography, East Sale, Victoria, Australia, in 1949.

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#22 Detective Patrick O’Brien of the Chicago Police Crime Lab, records a major crime scene with his large format Ansco camera in June, 1950.

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#23 A trio of keen amateurs, perhaps doing a bit of train spotting, late 1920’s.

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#24 American Air Force photographers load a Fairchild K-22 camera into the nose of a reconnaissance aircraft.

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#25 A serendipitous version of “American Gothic” taken in the early 1940’s.

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#26 An Australian pioneering family, dressed in their ‘Sunday Best’, take time out for a small group photograph.

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#27 Graflex Speed Graphic Camera

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#28 Kodak Bullseye Box Camera

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#29 A United States Navy photographer undergoes training with a large format press camera during World War II.

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#30 A United States military photographer undergoes training with a large format press camera.

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#31 United States Navy cinematographer with a Mitchell camera on board a Motor Torpedo Boat somewhere in the Pacific during WW2.

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#32 Graflex Speed Graphic Camera

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#33 On R&R in the 1940’s is a United States Women’s Army Corps Photographer with an Argus (Brick) camera.

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#34 A street photographer, somewhere in England, with his Moore & Co Aptus Ferrotype camera. The processing solutions hang from the struts of his wooden tripod.

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#35 United States Navy photographer in Greece.

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#36 Chicago camera club photographers of the 1940’s pose it up for a snapshot. The guy on the left is using a large Korona stand camera, while the fellow on the right shoots with a Cine Kodak Special.

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#37 Australian Navy photographer, “Lofty” Ansell, with a Bell & Howell cine camera in June 1974.

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#38 Photographers of the Ledger Enquirer in Columbus Georgia posing with their Graflex cameras, early 1960’s

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#39 Australian Navy photographer, Sue Pope, with a Hasselblad camera.

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#40 Australian Navy photographer, Ron Berkhout, with a Mamiya C330 camera, during the late 1980’s.

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#41 Margaret Truman, daughter of the former President, Harry S. Truman, displays her skills with a Graflex camera. She borrowed the camera from pressmen during a function at the Conrad Hilton in Chicago, Illinois, during September 1953.

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#42 A young lad in 1930’s America.

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#43 Tourists or a camera club in Chicago, Illinois, during June 1954.

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#44 Warren Beatty filming “Mickey One”, near Chicago, in March, 1964. The producer/director, Arthur Penn, is right of the camera.

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#45 Lady with a Leica, somewhere in England.

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#46 A young fellow with a large Kodak box camera, probably posed during the early 1930’s in America.

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#47 Somewhere in England.

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#48 A correct way to hold and use a box camera. This time, a Kodak Six-16 Brownie Junior.

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#49 A newsreel cameraman captures families at the Democratic National Convention held at the Hilton Hotel, Chicago, in July, 1952.

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#50 Maxine Sullivan, of Melbourne, Australia, with a Petri 35mm camera, and a typical teen coiffure during the 1960’s.

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#51 United States serviceman with a Bell & Howell Eyemo movie camera.

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#52 Reflex-Korelle Camera

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#53 Press and Television corps at MacArthur Day commemorations in Chicago during the late 1940’s. A battery of different cameras, including Arriflex and Mitchell movie cameras, and Graflex ‘Big Bertha’ cameras, are being operated by photographers and cameramen from NBC, and Chicago’s WGN-TV, as well as the Chicago Sun Times.

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#54 A group of Graflex wielding press photographers descend on a table bound model.

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#55 An obvious eye-catcher touring the Mediterranean with a 35mm Leica camera.

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#56 A Chicago news crew awaits a press conference in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November, 1963.

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#57 While undergoing training, United States military photographers practice with the Graflex camera during May, 1944.

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#58 Polaroid Highlander Camera

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#59 Graflex SLR Camera

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#60 Kodak Baby Brownie Special Camera

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